The more he thought about it, the more his blood boiled.
The old guy would be bringing the big one home after the stupid party. It wasn’t too late to put his plan into action. It would just be a different target.
He had already taken his lunch break, so his chance would have to come during his coffee break in the latter part of his shift.
He would be gone longer than he was supposed to, but it would be late and maybe no one would notice. He worked extra hard to make sure all his wastebaskets had been emptied and all the trays had been taken to the kitchen.
At his break time, he slipped away again, drove to the apartment building and hid in the shadows.
He looked at his watch. If they didn’t come in the next twenty minutes, he would have to abort again.
Five minutes had passed when he saw the headlights turn the corner and pull up in front of the building.
The old guy got out first and opened the door for the big guy who seemed a bit wobbly on his feet.
“Party hearty,” Oscar thought.
The two disappeared inside and ten minutes later, he heard the old man’s footsteps coming down the inside stairs.
He got into position on the ground with his stun gun at his side and waited until he heard the outer door close.
“HELP ME!” he cried. “SOMEBODY! PLEASE HELP ME!”
As he had figured, the old cop rushed to his side, “What happened? Are you hurt?”
When the old guy leaned over him, he thrust the stun gun into his neck and pulled the trigger --- but nothing happened. He tried again, but still nothing. He realized that he must have forgotten to charge the damn thing!
The old man recoiled instantly, “You! It’s you! I knew it all along!”
Oscar reached for his knife and made a lunge for the old cop who deftly stepped aside and knocked the knife from his hand.
He hadn’t expected that. The old guy was more agile that he would have guessed.
Unarmed and not knowing whether the cop was packing, Oscar jumped to his feet and fled into the night.
CHAPTER 25
I watched Oscar Roach disappear around the corner of the building.
I wanted to pursue him, but my body wouldn’t move.
I had been momentarily paralyzed when I realized that I had almost been the next victim of the Librarian.
But for two fortuitous events, it would have been my body that was found holding the next bloody novel.
Something had gone terribly wrong with Roach’s stun gun. That, along with the tricky little move that I had learned watching Judy teach her class while I waited for Ox to bring ice for my throbbing nuts, had saved my life.
When I finally pulled myself together, I knocked on Ox’s door and we called the station.
Detective Blaylock arrived, followed by a dozen black and whites.
After hearing my story, he dispatched officers to both the hospital and his apartment, but Roach was nowhere to be found.
Both locations were staked out, but Roach never showed.
The next morning, Blaylock arrived with a search warrant and went through Roach’s building with a fine-toothed comb.
His apartment was clean, but in the basement, they found a stash of gunny sacks, an assortment of used knives and hammers and clothing from a Salvation Army Thrift Store.
The guy had been clever. If we hadn’t known that he was the killer, the stuff stashed in the dingy old basement, open to the public, could have belonged to anyone.
But we did know, and it was the final nail in Roach’s coffin.
He was definitely the Librarian and we knew it!
Oscar raced to his old Honda and climbed inside.
He had been looking over his shoulder, but the old cop hadn’t followed him.
He was furious with himself.
He had made another mistake --- his third.
The first two he had covered nicely, and the cops had absolutely nothing to tie him to the murders, but this third one was a killer.
How could he have forgotten to charge his stun gun? More than once he had let his cell phone battery run down, but this --- this was inexcusable!
Ten murders, all executed perfectly and the whole thing was blown with a dead battery.
It was time for damage control. Although they now knew his identity as the Librarian, they hadn’t caught him yet.
Maybe this was the way it was supposed to turn out. Up till now, no one knew that these deeds had been committed by Oscar Roach, the nerdy little guy with the bedpan, the geek that none of the nurses would date.
Now they would know.
He looked at his watch. He might have enough time to make one stop by his apartment to pick up the charger for his stun gun before the police surrounded the place. After that he could never go back to his apartment or to his job.
The cops would be looking for his car, so he would have to ditch that too.
He would have to disappear --- move to another state --- lose himself in a big city --- start over again --- but not until he had finished his work here.
There is nothing like a near-death experience to make you appreciate the little things in life.
After my harrowing ordeal, and with Ox’s wedding just a few days away, the Captain insisted that we both take some time off.
My first priority was to spend time with Maggie. She was visibly shaken when she heard the story of my encounter with Roach.
This wasn’t the first time the grim reaper had come knocking, and each time she wondered if the next one would be the last.
We worked together on the final preparations for Ox and Judy’s wedding, sipped cups of hot chocolate while we watched snow gently drifting by our window and cuddled together, listening to the winter wind howl through the trees.
As hard as I tried, I couldn’t keep the visions of the Librarian’s victims out of my mind.
Somewhere out there was a man that had taken the lives of ten people and had nearly taken mine, and I knew that I would have no peace as long as he was free.
Lady Justice can be a cruel mistress when there’s a job yet to be done.
Oscar huddled in the corner of the abandoned warehouse.
The smoke from the small fire he had built from the wood of splintered pallets stung his eyes, but he inched closer to the flame to ward off the cold of the drafty old building.
He opened the newspaper that he had stolen from a nearby apartment.
His photo, taken from his driver’s license, was prominent on the front page along with the headline, “Police Search For Man In Connection With The Librarian Slayings!”
The article went on to say that Oscar Roach, the man pictured, was wanted for questioning as a ‘person of interest’ in the grisly murders. He was considered to be armed and dangerous and if seen, he was not to be approached. Any sightings should be reported to the TIPS Hotline.
“Person of interest,” he scoffed. “Why couldn’t they just come right out and say that he was the guy --- the Librarian?”
He knew that every cop in the city was looking for him and that he should have been miles away by now, but he just couldn’t leave the city until the job was finished.
There was one task left before his legacy in Kansas City was complete. Only one more day until Christmas Eve and then it would be over.
CHAPTER 26
Christmas Eve!
The big day had arrived and Ox was as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs, as my grandma used to say.
The ceremony was scheduled for three o’clock --- a long time to wait. Ox mentioned something about he’d rather have a root canal --- more evidence that weddings are far more important to the bride than to the groom.
The girls were all a twitter.
Maggie had assumed her role as matron of honor with gusto.
She had the florist, the baker and the photographer on speed dial and checked with them every hour to make sure everything was on track.
The ceremony itsel
f was to be simple --- no big wedding party --- just Pastor Bob, and us, but Mary was having none of it.
She declared that all her life she had wanted to be a flower girl and had never gotten her chance --- kind of a bucket list thing --- and that this was going to be it.
Our gentle reminders that flower girls were usually cute little toddlers fell on deaf ears.
She was determined, and in the end we said, “What the heck. Why not?”
Dad and Jerry had busied themselves preparing the trail of tin cans that would be tied to the couple’s back bumper and had purchased the appropriate writing instruments to scribble ‘Just Married!’ on their back window.
I picked Ox up at his apartment and took him to Mel’s Diner for a breakfast of hotcakes, bacon and coffee.
The big guy will usually pack away two stacks of Mel’s hotcakes with ease, but after just one, he excused himself and headed to the can.
I heard some grunts and groans and Ox returned white-faced and sweaty. What a waste of good pancakes.
The giant of a man that I had seen stare down dangerous armed felons had been brought to his knees by the idea of saying ‘I do’ in front of a church full of people. We all have our Achilles Heel.
I spent the morning just driving him around town --- by places where we had collared a crook or nearly been blown up --- just to take his mind off of the trial he was about to face.
We arrived at the church about one o’clock.
The Community Christian Church on Linwood Boulevard, built in the 1920’s, had a glorious past. The massive structure had once boasted a congregation numbering in the thousands, but the shifting demographics of the inner city resulted in the ‘white flight’ phenomenon of the 1960’s.
The congregation dwindled away and the magnificent old church sat boarded up for years.
One day, Pastor Bob walked into my real estate office. He had just walked away from a large Protestant church because he wouldn’t bow to political pressure from the church hierarchy.
He was looking for a place to start a new congregation and I got him the old church for a song.
His current congregation of a few hundred souls barely fills up a corner of the massive structure.
As we watched the invited guests drift into the sanctuary, I realized that it was fortunate indeed that we had chosen a venue that could seat hundreds.
Ox was a twenty-three year veteran of the Kansas City Police Department and he had issued an open invitation to his fellow officers.
He was amazed at the long line of blue uniforms filing into the church. They had come to honor one of their own.
Judy was an officer too, but a fairly new arrival. She had come from a military background and many friends from her service days came to wish her well.
Willie had been present when Maggie was compiling the guest list and I’m guessing that it was at his insistence that another faction of Ox and Judy’s friends were on the list.
I recognized pretty much every tenant from the Three Trails Hotel. One of them had given us a word of warning. “I wouldn’t go in the can for a while. Old man Feeney just came out.”
One whole pew was filled with the hookers that Judy had coached in her self-defense class, and Willie was seated right behind them next to Louie the Lip and some other street characters that had come to our assistance on various occasions.
As I viewed the congregation, it struck me what an incredible event this was.
On one side of the aisle sat con men and ladies of the night and on the other side, officers from the Vice Squad that had probably arrested most of them at least once, but on this occasion, all of that was forgotten because they were there to celebrate a special occasion.
It reminded me of the story of the Christmas Eve Truce of 1914. The battles of World War One stopped on Christmas Eve almost 100 years ago and there was ‘Peace on Earth,’ at least for one night, in the trenches of France where the Germans, French, and British had been previously slaughtering one another. It was a Christmas miracle and a touching story of what happens when Christmas overcomes war.
On this day, all that mattered was the marriage of their mutual friends.
Ox and I were waiting in Pastor Bob’s study.
The time seemed to be moving in slow motion. Ox glanced at his watch every few minutes and was constantly wiping beads of sweat from his brow.
At precisely three o’clock, Pastor Bob popped into the room.
“It’s time --- dead man walking --- any final words?”
‘Dead man walking’ was the term used when convicts are taken from their cells and walked to the execution chamber.
I’m sure that the cleric’s reference was meant to lighten the mood, but I think, with Ox, it had the opposite effect.
He rose to his feet on wobbly legs and grabbed my arm to steady himself.
“You can do this partner,” I whispered. “I’m right here with you.”
We followed Pastor Bob to the sanctuary.
When Ox saw that the room was filled almost to capacity, I felt a shiver go through his big body.
“Look at all the friends that have come to wish you well. Bet you didn’t know that many people cared about you.”
He managed a smile, but it took a lot of effort.
After we had taken our places, Pastor Bob nodded to the organist and the processional music filled the church.
That was Mary’s cue.
She was wearing a pink taffeta dress with a full skirt that stuck straight out with all the petticoats underneath. I wondered how many Goodwill Thrift stores she had shopped before she found the whole ensemble.
Hopefully, no one from the fashion police was in the audience.
It was obvious that she took her job very seriously.
She marched slowly down the aisle dropping petals along the way.
When she passed the aisle where the Three Trails Gang was seated, one of them remarked, “Look! It’s the flower fairy!”
She turned, threw a handful of petals in the guy’s face and I heard her say, “Shut up, asshole!”
She continued solemnly down the aisle as if nothing had happened.
“Well, we’re off to a good start,” I whispered to Ox.
The big guy was grinning from ear to ear.
Mary had inadvertently done more to loosen him up than anything I had done all day.
Maggie was next.
As I watched her glide down the aisle, I was reminded of our special day just over a year ago and I hoped my good friend would be as happy as we are.
Finally, the strains of the Wedding March filled the church.
Everyone stood and watched Judy, accompanied by the Professor, walk down the aisle.
When the Professor placed her hand in Ox’s big paw, I could see the joy and love in his eyes.
The congregation was seated and Pastor Bob began, “Friends and family, we are gathered here today to celebrate the union of this man and woman in holy matrimony.”
In deference to Ox’s condition, the Pastor kept his remarks short and to the point, which suited me just fine. I never figured that a wedding was the appropriate place for a sermon.
We muddled through the ring exchange without any disasters.
Soon, it was time for the sacred vows.
“Judy DeMarco, do you take this man, George Wilson, to be your lawfully wedded husband. To love, honor, cherish and obey until death do you part?”
Without so much as a flinch, Judy replied, “I will absolutely love, honor and cherish, but as for the last part, I promise that I will at least listen to his side of the story.”
“I figured as much,” Bob replied.
“George Wilson, do you take this woman, Judy DeMarco, to be your lawfully wedded wife. To love, honor, cherish and obey until death do you part?”
Ox looked at Judy and I noticed her eyebrow raise just a smidge.
“Uhhh, you know --- I think I’ll go with the ‘obey’. Yes, I do!”
“Wise choice,” the P
astor said dryly.
“Then by the authority vested in me by the State of Missouri, I pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride.”
Ox gave her a big smooch and the congregation rose and cheered.
The wedding party walked from the alter to the foyer and awaited the onslaught.
Well-wishers filed by, shaking hands and kissing cheeks on their way to the reception in the huge gymnasium at the back of the church.
The last of the hand shakers had just left when Ox leaned over and whispered, “I gotta take a whiz. I wasn’t sure I was going to make it. Thank goodness the Pastor kept it short.”
Ox disappeared around the corner in search of the little boy’s room.
Just then, the photographer approached. “Now that the crowd is gone, lets get a few shots of you at the alter before we do the cake and punch thing.”
Judy looked around, “Where’s Ox?”
“He’s taking a leak,’ I replied. “He just left.”
“Not a bad idea,” Maggie said. “Once we get into that reception hall, we may not get another chance for a while.”
So off we went. The next few hours would definitely be more comfortable with empty bladders.
We went down the hall, turned the corner and saw a body on the floor and a man standing over it.
The man looked up with a look of surprise on his face.
“It’s Roach!” I shouted. “He’s got Ox and he has a knife!”
Judy raised her skirt and pulled a snub-nosed .38 for the holster she had strapped to her thigh. “Get away from him, you son-of-a-bitch!”
When Roach saw the pistol, he dropped the knife and took off down the hall.
Judy fired just as he ducked around the corner.
We rushed up to Ox. A quick examination showed two red marks on his neck where the stun gun had hit him, but we had gotten there before Roach could do further damage.
Just then, Maxine and her five friends came out of the ladies room.
“What’s all the commotion?” she asked.
“It’s Roach. He tried to kill Ox.”
[Lady Justice 10] - Lady Justice and the Book Club Murders Page 14